Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation has become the first Japanese automaker to announce that it will do business with Iran since the economic sanctions on the country were lifted, Japanese NHK reported.

The company said on Tuesday that it will start exporting light-duty trucks this year and had signed a contract with a Dubai-based firm that will be its distributor in Iran.

Iran is one of the largest automobile markets in the Middle East, with annual new car sales of around one million units.

More than 30,000 trucks are said to have been sold in 2010 before the tough sanctions were imposed.

The US and the European Union lifted anti-Iran sanctions after the January 16 report released by the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Yukiya Amano who verified nuclear program in Iran by his report.

Then, the implementation of the July 14 nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) started as Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini issued a joint statement announcing the ‘Implementation Day’.

Mitsubishi Fuso says demand for commercial vehicles is expected to grow now that the sanctions have ended.

Japanese automakers used to export vehicles to Iran or operated assembly plants there.

But the firms almost completely withdrew from the country after the West’s sanctions on Iran.

After removal of anti-Iran sanctions, most of the foreign corporations and investors have rushed out to Iran’s market.